A front-support

This is a foldable shoulder rig with controls for audio on the left handle and controls for focus and start/stop recording (or shutter for photos) on the right handle.
You can fold everything up and it will fit nicely into a bag.
With the controls on the handles, you don't have to move your hands away from the handles for the most common tasks.
This you are faster to react and the camera stays steady in the beginning and end of a shot as your hands are on the handles at these times and don't move to/from the camera.


Blog posts:
* marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/12/im-back-3d-printing.html
* marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/11/shoulder-rig-modification.html

Quick-release belt-grip kind of like a simplified version of the B-Grip.

Very useful to have the camera ready without occupying your hands and without having the camera shake around and potentially hit things and get damaged as on a belt.

This makes use of the camera_plate from my 3d printed shoulder rig -design.

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/3d-printed-camera-belt-clip.html

This is a parametric set of lens-gears for a follow focus.
Compatible with industry standard follow focus systems.
(Yes, these things cost an arm and a leg in shops.)

pitch: 0.8
#tooth: 97
all gears have the same outer but different inner diameters.
(You you need not adjust your follow focus when switching lenses.)

All gears have their nominal inner diameter labeled onto them in 3d letters.

60mm = 56-60mm
62mm = 59-62mm
65mm = 62-65mm
68mm = 64-70mm
70mm = 67-70mm

example lens-sizes for a few DSLR lenses:
Name ....................... lens gear size (filter size)

Panasonic 14-42 ............ 60mm
Canon FD 50mm f1.2 (nicht L) 62mm (52mm)
Canon FD 50mm f1.2L ........ 65mm (55mm)
Canon FD 35-70 f3.5-4.5 .... 62,5mm (52mm)
Sun FD 135mm f2.5 .......... 66,5mm (58mm)
Tamron FD 28mm f2.5 ........ 60mm (67mm)
Tamron SP 28-80mm f3.5-4.2 . 68mm (67mm)
Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 68mm (62mm)
RMC Tokina 70-210mm f3.5 ... 70mm (62mm)

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/parametric-lens-gear-set.html

Photos:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/201105_201106_geared_follow_focus?feat=directlink

Shapeways
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon
(for the few people here without a 3d printer)

The middle_piece of the 3d printed shoulder rig can be quite hard to print on smaller printers like the Thing-o-Matic.
(I printed the original rig on a RepMan.)
It's long cross-section may induce warping and it streches the limites of the build-platform.

This one is more compact.
It works for the center-support of the camera-plate, the counter-weight and the follow-focus.
2 additional holes in the shape of an M5 nut in the camera_place may be required to use this as the front and back middle_piece to support that camera_plate with the compact middle_pieces as well.

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/compact-middlepiece-for-3d-printed.html

Improvements:
I improved the belt-clip's ergonomics by placing the belt higher.
Making the 1/4 bolt easier to reach and putting the center of gravity lower.

Purpose:
The H4n is a common field audio recorder.
This belt clip keeps your hands free for shooting video without having to hold the recorder
or allow you to mount the recorder on the back of your talent and have him/her/it wear a lavalier or headset while speaking on camera.
Just mount it the way you would "normally" mount an expensive radio-transmitter with an expensive power-injector for the microphone but with much lower cost and no noise/fading due to the radio link.
Use the on-camera sound to synchronize the voice to your video later and get the same effect as if you had used an expensive radio-link to capture the voice of your talent.

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/belt-clip-for-zoom-h4n-field-recorder-3.html

Photos:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/12072011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I'm currently designing a 3d printed battery grip for the Panasonic GH-1.
Due to the complexity of the model,
I'm currently starting out with a highly simplified design.
This prototype only contains 2 batteries, no button, no electronics, no display, no connectors.
Not even routes for the cable. Just holes to mount tiny, 1mm thick copper plates for the battery contacts.
It is opened and closed with 3 M5 sinkhole bolts.
I want to get this prototype right before refining it into a "proper" battery grip.

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/3d-printed-battery-grip-prototype.html

This is a belt clip to use your H4n field recorder to actually record in the field.
It is based on my spider mount for the H4n but has holes to access the most common buttons on the side
(that are not needed in the spider mount because that is used together with the remote.)

I added an access-hole to the 1/4 bolt and sunk that bold a bit to not damage the belt.
The corners touched by human hands are of cause rounded.

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/belt-clip-for-zoom-h4n-field-recorder.html

Update: 2011-07-12
* placement of hole for volume-keys optimized
* easier to print if you have warping issues

Update: 2011-07-13
* tested and last changes for the 1/4" bolt used
* 3d assembly created
* managed to get 3d-assembly, 3d-body and 2 2d technical drawings into the PDF

Update: 2011-07-26
* added a mirrored version to carry the H4n on the other right hip instead of the left. (With the microphones facing forward.)

THIS IMPROVED ADAPTER IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.
I HOPE TO TEST IT NEXT WEEKEND ON GulaschProgrammierNacht.

Improvement:
* use a third M5 hole that already exists in the Thing-o-Matic to stabilize the adapter against backlash in milling
* grip the edge of the toolhead-platform for added stability

This should allow me to do the PCB milling much faster without loosing precision to backlash.

Blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/06/improved-repman-to-tom-toolhead-adapter.html

original video:

youtube.com/watch?v=z14gkPYD0aI

===

I made this adapter, so I could reuse my very stable Dremel milling-head on the new Thing-O-Matic.
Any RepMan-toolhead should fit with this adapter.


I oriented the part, so that it prints well on a Thing-O-Matic.

This is an alternative build-platform for the Thing-o-Matic.
(May also fit the Cupcake, You'll have to try.)

Using the ABP-quick-release ( thingiverse.com/thing:8878 )
you can quickly switch your automated build platform for this platform and using
the Repman toolhead adapter ( thingiverse.com/thing:8738 )
and Dremel Milling Toolhead ( thingiverse.com/thing:1703 )
you can start milling PCBs.

Make mechanics, enclosures AND electronics on your desktop factory!

I'm currently preparing a video explaining all the steps
from printing the parts down to setting up VIsolate
for optimized voronoi milling and then actually
milling a spare Thing-o-Matic end-stop.

This is already version 1.2 of the platform while I used version 1.1 .
The difference is that you can level the platform using 4 small bolts now.

Blog Entry:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/06/achievement-unlocked-pcb-milling.html

Video:

youtube.com/watch?v=z14gkPYD0aI

After my gearless follow focus,
here a geared one.
Swapping the lens is not as easy as it is with the gearless one and you need a lens-gear for every lens but you also need no pressure to create friction.
The follow focus and lens gear are compatible with industry standard 0.8 pitch follow focus equipment.
The axis use 608 bearings to reduce any noise of threaded rods on plastic that could be picked up by the microphone and to make this run as smooth as possible.
The mounting is for an industry standard 15mm rail support system such as
my 3d printed shoulder rig:

thingiverse.com/thing:7278

With a follow focus you have precise, manual control over the focus (or zoom) of your lens.
It is used for professional filming where precise control of the focus is required and where a pumping autofocus would simply ruin the take.
Commercial versions are sadly terribly expensive. :(

Photos:

picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/201105_201106_geared_follow_focus?feat=directlin
Blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/06/3d-printed-geared-follow-focus.html

Video (Part I)

youtube.com/watch?v=imy2UaUzNeY

Update: (2011-07-17)
Added lens_gear_version3 with a wider tap for the bolt.

With the H4n attached to my shoulder rig or camera I noticed that it does pick up some impact noise from my hands on the other side of the rig.
(Most of the time it's not noticeable.)

Background
For a microphone you usually counter this with a spider mount.
However such mounts seem to exist only for conventional microphones.
Not for field recorders.
Using the microphone-stand adapter of the H4n was no option as the high center of gravity only allows for stationary mounting of the recorder.

This design
Based on the existing inner part for a spider mount for the H4n field recorder,
I designed an outer part to mount it to a 15mm rod system.
In this case, the diagonal rod that holds the handles.
So the field recorder is right in front of your eyes.

I'm reusing two of my universal accessory-holders for 15mm rod support systems:
thingiverse.com/thing:7530

and I strongly suggest to use my remote handle:
thingiverse.com/thing:7765
to control the H4n. As any way of touching the recorder would be contrary to the purpose of using a spider mount in the first place.


Links

Photos:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110526H4nSpiderUnobservedPrint?feat=directlink

Blog Entry:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/15mm-rod-system-spider-mount-for-h4n.html

notes

With another inner part, you can use this to mount other field recorders or microphones to a 15mm rod system too.
You can also use this part to connect the H4n to anything else that has 2
1/4" (or slightly smaller metric) bolts sticking out of it.

This is a simple modification to the ABP,
to make it removable.

This way we can quickly switch to alternative
build-platforms better suited to the current
tool-head or object to print.
(e.g. HBP for tall objects or a vice for
milling and "steptrusion" or a clamp for drawing.)

The following video explains how we insert these:

youtube.com/watch?v=qRBEHoXQ5Ds

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/thing-o-matic-removable-abp-mod.html

You may use this part to design new built platforms.
(I'm thinking about designing a vice-like platform for PCB milling.)

I like the DC Fan holder.
Transporting my Thing-O-Matic often I choose a very wide and long fan instead,
so it would never break of. (40x50 instead of 40x40 and 32mm thick with 2 fans and 2 motors)
Mine also uses a very strange bolt-size of M3.5 .
This required a redesign.
I am using 2 flat pieces on either end of the fan
instead of housing this large thing inside the DC fan holder.
My clamp-arm is not parallel to the wood but starting at 4mm and ending at 5.
This way it will clamp more securely and with more force.

To still attach it easily I tapered the arm by 2mm
(and the bolt holes by my usual 1mm).

The arm is also not as long as the fan.
With the fan 10mm wider, the arm would get in the way of the Z-endstop.
Thus it ends 15mm short of the back wall.


blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/thing-o-matic-cooling-z-stepper.html

I made this adapter, so I could reuse my very stable Dremel milling-head on the new Thing-O-Matic.
Any RepMan-toolhead should fit with this adapter.


I oriented the part, so that it prints well on a Thing-O-Matic.

I did test it with my RepMan tool-head and it worked. (see the video)

Video:

youtube.com/watch?v=z14gkPYD0aI

blog posts:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/toolhead-adapter-for-repman-tools-in.html

I

added holes for trapped nuts,
made the holes wider
and added 1mm of tapper for easier insertion


It should not require drilling any more and work right out of the box.

The M3 nuts are not completely removed, so their bolts stay fastened to complete their original function.

This is a lens gear for a 65mm lens to use with a follow focus.
Adapting this to smaller lenses should be trivial.

0.8mm pitch, 97 teeth to the full circle.
I tested these to be compatible with industry standard follow focus equipment of the same pitch.

(These gears are sold for obscene prices, so I printed my own.)

blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/3d-printed-geared-follow-focus.html

video in action:
youtu.be/bRS5ZIMN15A

Update:
To make construction with this part easier, I also added the counter-gear for it.
Ready with an M8 trapped nut and tapering to make inserting nut and shaft easier.
I choose a very thick M8 shaft to allow cheap and readily available 608 skateboard-bearings to be used.
(The rounding between trapped nut and gear is to increase strength.)

With the H4n attached to my shoulder rig or camera I noticed that it does pick up some impact noise from my hands on the other side of the rig.
(Most of the time it's not noticeable.)

Background
For a microphone you usually counter this with a spider mount.
However such mounts seem to exist only for conventional microphones.
Not for field recorders.
Using the microphone-stand adapter of the H4n was no option as the high center of gravity only allows for stationary mounting of the recorder.

About
This is only the inner part.
Feel free to design outer parts according to where you mount the recorder to.
I'll do one for my shoulder rig one of these days.
Other options are e.g a mount for the tip of a sound-pole
or directly to a camera to get a small package.

Details
I left access to the headphone-port open. The cable hitting things is not an issue. You need not worry about that.
Same for the access to the speaker on the lower side. So you can play your recording to the speaker/actor without dismounting the H4n.
I did design easy to access holes to reach the recording-level and playback-level. However these features are not included in the STL export.
This is because it makes the thing stronger and I strongly suggest to use
the RC04-remote for the H4n. Touching buttons on the device while recording would, after all, defy the purpose of this mounting.

Link
Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/05/spider-mount-for-h4n-field-recorder.html

Photo-Album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

Notes:
sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig

Looks like someone made something similar for the Zoom H1
but didn't publish the design. :(
dslrfilmnoob.com/2011/05/18/zoom-h1-shock-mount-adapter-run/

outher mounts for this inner part:

for standard 15mm rod systems:
thingiverse.com/thing:8908

I got bored on a train ride and improved this old design.

It's a replacement-part for the 4 bed holders and now
should in theory reduce wobble in not only in 1 but 2 dimensions.

It's an experiment and not yet proven to work well.
(work in progress. I hope to get around to trying it when I take the machine apart anyway to replace all corners and the 4 Z-rods.)

I am using a 3" 4:3 "Digifinder" display-viewfinder on my Panasonic GH-1 but found that:
a) The way to mount it with a rubber band is ****
and
b) I can't see the edges of the screen where battery-level and other important information is shown

This adapter fits perfectly onto the screen of a GH-1, GH-2, FZ100, ... camera and can be attached and detached without any rubber band chaos.
It allows to mount the digifinder at a longer distance and thus see more of the display.
There is even enough room in the visible area to drill some holes and insert micro-LEDs as indicators for e.g. audio-level warnings or to have some feedback that the audio recorder is actually recording at the moment.

Feel free to adapt this to other cameras (e.g. the Canon 60D).
You can use the free 30 day trial of Alibre Design, just change the camera-specific parameters and export as STL.


Blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/en-display-viewfinder-adapter.html

Photo album:

picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/17042011DisplayViewfinderAdapter?feat=directlink

Putting so much effort into the picture,
the sound is often overlooked while filming.
So if you have no dedicated sound guy the usual approach is to at least get a decent audio recorder and sync it with the images later.

But what do you do if you notice that the audio levels are spiking or
sound is too faint and you don't want to rely on an automatic compressor to more or less get it right?
You can't touch the recorder during the shots as that would be noticeable in the recording.

So this allows you to attach the RC04 remote-control for the famous Zoom H4n audio recorder to the handle of your camera rig and not only control the levels of all 4 channels (e.g. stereo background, interview partner and interviewer) but also start and stop the recording, play it back right after the shot to give your interview partner a thumbs up but also have 4 LEDs in view to inform you about levels on each channel being about to spike and feedback that recording has indeed started.

Update:
I added some fins to make this easier to print.
The difficulty level is still quite high.
Feel free to suggest a more elegant design.
(That does not rely on a specific kind of bicycle-handle.)

blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/audio-remote-for-shoulder-rig.html
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/en-some-more-cad.html

photo album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

forum post:
forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536,page=2

IF YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO A 3D-PRINTER AND CAN't FINE SOMEONE ELSE TO PRINT THESE FOR YOU, YOU CAN HAVE SHAPEWAYS PRINT THESE FOR YOU:
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon?section=Camera+and+Filming

I found that the forces on the handles of the rig can be quiet strong due to the leverage.
e.g. when accidentally hitting a door.

This T-connector is changed to be much thicker and stronger.

blog post:

marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/en-extra-strong-t-connector-for.html

photo album:

picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

discussion:

forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536

project notes in my wiki:

sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig

This is a modiciation of the T-connector to carry a trapped 1/4" bolt.
This way you can attach any accessory that has a 1/4 tripod nut or (with a cheap hotshoe-adaptor) a hotshoe-connection to your industry standard 15mm DSLR shoulder rig.
e.g. an external microphone, audio recorder, camera lights,...


blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/accessory-holder-for-shoulder-rig.html

photo album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

forum post:
forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536,page=2

project in my personal wiki:
sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig#status

IF YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO A 3D-PRINTER AND CAN't FINE SOMEONE ELSE TO PRINT THESE FOR YOU, YOU CAN HAVE SHAPEWAYS PRINT THESE FOR YOU:
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon?section=Camera+and+Filming

A simple attachment for an industry standard 2x15mmx60mm camera rig
to hold a common 30mm training weight as a counter balance.


blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/counter-weight-for-shoulder-rig.html

photo album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

forum post:
forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536

project in my personal wiki:
sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig#status

IF YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO A 3D-PRINTER AND CAN't FINE SOMEONE ELSE TO PRINT THESE FOR YOU, YOU CAN HAVE SHAPEWAYS PRINT THESE FOR YOU:
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon?section=Camera+and+Filming

This is a very simple follow-focus using a roller-blade or skateboard -wheel instead of gears.
It's great to experiment with a follow focus on a shoulder-rig without investing a lot of time and effort into a more complex geared or even remote follow focus.

See thingiverse.com/thing:7256 for a much cooler but also more complex design requiring electronics and microcontroller-programming.

Update:
I added a (not yet tested) straight version of this follow focus because with my new matte box there was not enough space to mount this anymore.

Video:
youtube.com/watch?v=FHwVil_Lvcg&feature=player_embedded

blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/04/printing-gearless-follow-focus.html

photo album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

forum post:
forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536

project in my personal wiki:
sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig#status

IF YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO A 3D-PRINTER AND CAN't FINE SOMEONE ELSE TO PRINT THESE FOR YOU, YOU CAN HAVE SHAPEWAYS PRINT THESE FOR YOU:
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon?section=Camera+and+Filming

A very basic shoulder rig for a camera.
Feel free to design attachments (e.g. follow-focus, handle, connectors for microphones, lights, display, barn doors or recording-devices) and improvements (e.g. an offset rig for DSLRs lacking a turnable display, different shoulder-supports, 3/4" parts instead of 1/4",...)

video:
youtube.com/watch?v=imy2UaUzNeY

project homepage:
sourceforge.net/userapps/mediawiki/marcuswolschon/index.php?title=Projects/Camera/ShoulderRig

photo album:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/20110325Bis201105ShulterRigBauen?feat=directlink

discussion:
forums.reprap.org/read.php?88,75536

When the rig is finished, I'll provide exports of all parts into a number of CAD-formats to make it easy to reuse and improve them.

IF YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO A 3D-PRINTER AND CAN't FINE SOMEONE ELSE TO PRINT THESE FOR YOU, YOU CAN HAVE SHAPEWAYS PRINT THESE FOR YOU:
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon?section=Camera+and+Filming

inspired by the FD flanges I measured the m4/3 -side of my m4/3 to FD adapter.

status:
NOT PRINTED YET, WORK IN PROGRESS.
I'm not even sure this can be printed (1mm height details)

I redid this from scratch based on an original Canon lense-cap.
It has more details that the simpler copies from other lense
manufacturers not have.
It is also tapered to stay fixed in the lense.


Status:
I DID NOT PRINT THIS YET!
I hope to print this next weekend.

Done in Alibre Design. (there is a 30 day trial that can handle this thing)

Improved version.
Just 1 part now.

Adaptor to use B-Grip quick-release plates ( bgrip.com/ )
on Manfrotto MA-323/3299 (or Calumet labeled equivalent) tripods.

Grab the camera from your belt, click it into your monopod, aim, shoot!